Fetal Tracing System Funded

A gift from the estate of Evelyn Ferrier helped the Whidbey General Hospital Foundation purchase a state-of-the-art fetal monitoring system.

It may take a village to raise a child, but it certainly took a diverse partnership to fund a comprehensive fetal surveillance and archiving system for the Hospital’s obstetrics unit.

The first question that had to be answered before any funds could be sought was “What is it?” Translate ‘surveillance’ to monitoring and you begin to get the idea. Medical surveillance or monitoring of laboring mothers and their fetuses is vitally important to insure a healthy delivery and birth. The digital surveillance system the Foundation sought support for was the missing link for Whidbey General to connect the bedside monitor to the central nurses’ station and to the doctor’s office so providers could see the fetal ‘tracings,’ as the monitoring record is called, in real time. The system would ensure swift and appropriate response to problems as they arose.

In December, the Foundation was able to write a check to the Hospital for $109,000 because of a legacygift from Evelyn Ferrier and three grant funders: Island Thrift, the Tulalip Tribes Charitable Fund and the Norcliffe Foundation.

The new centralized digital system also solved a massive storage problem for the Hospital. Current legal mandates require that fetal tracings be retained for 21 years after the birth of the child. This meant WGH was storing thousands of miles of paper fetal tracings, which had been manually accessed. Digital storage requires no physical space and provides 24/7 access through a secure encrypted connection.

Learn more about legacy giving through the Whidbey General Hospital Foundation.